Brussels says no plans for EU-wide shale gas ban

Jul 16, 2013

Members of the Greens/European Free Alliance group of the European Parliament hold banners reading, "Stop fracking" in Strasbourg, eastern France, on November 21, 2012. The European Union has no plans to impose a blanket ban on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial shale gas extraction method, but it will lay out rules to address environmental concerns, a top EU official said Tuesday.

The European Union has no plans to impose a blanket ban on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial shale gas extraction method, but it will lay out rules to address environmental concerns, a top EU official said Tuesday.

EU Environment chief Janez Potocnik said the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, will draft its proposal for the rules by the end of the year to settle "some serious legislative gaps".

"We don't talk about banning fracking at the EU level," he told AFP after discussing the issue with the bloc's environment ministers in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

But he said they plan to ensure hydraulic fracturing or fracking is "done in a safe and secure way".

The EU's 28 members are divided in their approach to fracking. Poland, for example, has enthusiastically granted exploration rights to US fuel giants while France has banned the method.

European lawmakers want tough regulation of shale oil and gas exploration and member states should be cautious as they proceed, especially over 'fracking' recovery systems, a statement said on Wednesday.

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Romania will review its stand on shale gas when a drilling moratorium expires in December and align itself with a future joint EU position on the controversial issue, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Friday.

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User comments : 5

People are scared of fracking method because nobody inform them that is a safe method. Hot air about how toxic this method is because of pumping water with chemicals into the ground was produced by media. Water with chem is pumping way deeper then groundwater is, so there is no real possibility to mix them up. US is in shale gas boom right now and nothing wrong happened to their drinking water. What happened is economic pic as you can read here blog.pulawy.com/en/united-shales-of-america/

People are scared of fracking method because nobody inform them that is a safe method. Hot air about how toxic this method is because of pumping water with chemicals into the ground was produced by media. Water with chem is pumping way deeper then groundwater is, so there is no real possibility to mix them up. US is in shale gas boom right now and nothing wrong happened to their drinking water. What happened is economic pic as you can read here blog.pulawy.com/en/united-shales-of-america/

Ah, the left-wing media conspiracy again. Is there anything it cannot do or anywhere it cannot be?

Apparently you're not informed about ground and surface water pollution, earthquakes and drying of wells. That is to say, I'll vote against every politician, who could admit such a way of energy production in my country.